I am hoping to gain some clarity here about posting on the Medium.com. I realize that if I am to submit my work to an agent or editor then I should NOT post it to my Medium account. That being said I still have a few questions. I am going to ramble a bit under the question- just my way of expanding on the question. Would posting works that I do not plan to ever submit (personal naaratives, non-fic maybe some flash fiction) to my Medium account help or hurt me if an agent or editor would happen to search my name? I usually keep my Medium account more casual and don't worry to much about the details. This makes it easier to "publish" without being overly concerned with the outcome. But now wonder if those simple posts would be viewed as a negative by an agent or editor. I don't want to be "paralizedby perfection" but I am starting to feel that if I post to my medium account then I should at least assume it might be judged against me someday. Perhaps I should just change my name to a pen name and remove all doubt. but then again, if I post quality content to my Medium account then it could be seen as a positve as well making it easier to be found (or discovered in the realm of fantasy thoughts) It is not my intention to spend any amount of time "grooming" my medium account for the perfect stories but still I wanted to ask the community about this. I have heard argument on both sides of the coin about this on various medium accounts. Some say post daily and do not worry about perfection while other say think of quality over quantity. what do you all think? Personally I am leaning twords only posting something I am proud on under my real name and perhaps having a pen name to test out more questionable writings.
I think you should post it. On whether to use a pen name or not, that’s up to your preference, but I don’t think that you should be afraid of publishing stuff under your name. I’m sure it’s possible that there’s an agent out there who only wants people who have a completely clean slate, no posting online whatsoever, etc. That’s one negative, but there’s also a benefit to getting practice in putting stuff out there. Polishing works, posting them, getting feedback. Suppressing the inner perfectionist and just pushing your stories out the door. And if you’d rather do that under your own name then that’s fine. It probably won’t matter unless you post stuff that directly harms the brand you want to build (ie posting erotica when you want to be a middle grade writer). A good example of a successful writer publishing early works online is Andy Weir, who has a bunch of stories on a super janky HTML website. http://www.galactanet.com/writing.html Sure it’s not ideal but still it’s great. And some of them have gone viral, contributing greatly to his career (namely: The Egg). I’d say there’s more value in getting practice shipping stuff then there is danger from putting out non-perfect content. I’d advise to polish it up, since you get the added benefit of practicing that too. Don’t publish stuff under your name that you’re not proud of. But there’s plenty of writing that I’m proud of and think is fun, that I don’t want to try to sell either. Partly because it doesn’t have the flavor that I think magazines want to buy, and partly because it’s mine. It goes on my site. I own it. There’s meaning in that too. And if I want to try to publish something then it’s not as if I can’t just write a different short story. Good practice anyway.
Wow - the Egg was a good storie I think you are right. My monkey mind sometimes over thinks matters that don't matter and under think those things that do matter. Like building a strong writing work ethic, shipping on time and on a schedule, doing work that matters, practicing the craft, polishing ect... Unfortunately Medium is not the best place for feedback (unless you have a load of devoted followers and even then garbage posts can still recieve praise just because of the person and not the prose or story) It can be hard to find honest feedback sometimes. but thats a problem for anotherpost. Thanks for taking the time to respond. I think I need to polish up on my Seth Godin
